I had just turned eighteen at the end of my senior year in high school. Spring was in the air, graduation was near, and I was young. I convinced my parents that I didn’t need to stay at my brother’s house. They were going out of town for the weekend, to some kind of a Christian Conference. I assured them my newfound adulthood made me responsible enough to stay home on my own.
They left early on a Saturday morning, and that night, I partied hearty with my friends. We drank and drank down at DeWeese Parkway, our cars lined up like they were so many Saturday nights. I could have had everyone over to my house, but I wasn’t stupid. We had neighbors watching, and my brother and his wife lived a few blocks over.
By everyone’s curfew, the party split up, and all good teenagers had to be home. I went home. But once there, I realized I didn’t have to be. The night was young, and the beer was cold. Through a few phone calls, a friend invited me over to continue the merry-making at her house. There would just be a few of us. It was 2 a.m., and I can assure you I was quite drunk. But, I got behind the wheel and began the drive.
On Shoup Mill Road, going quite fast, I moved the car into the left turn lane, without the need to turn left and hit the median, straight on and fast. The car lurched out of control, but I finally stopped it, coming to rest on the median. It was a busy road normally, but at two in the morning, the street was bare. I wasn’t hurt, but the damage had been done to my parent’s car. Two flat tires, with the rim of the front wheel, bent all to heck.
I stood, looking, crying, and from that point on, things became a bit of a blur. A man came up to me from out of nowhere. I don’t remember him coming by car. He wore a long black overcoat, even though the night was extremely warm. I don’t remember seeing his face. He asked me if I needed help. I thanked him profusely as I accepted.
And. Somehow, he changed both of those tires.
There was only one spare in the car.
Then. Somehow, when he was done, he pointed me in the general direction of our house and told me I needed to go back home. Then he just went away.
So I went too.
He only spoke those two lines to me, nothing more. And he worked so quickly. It barely seemed like he was there at all. I drove home slowly, crying the whole way, thinking about how lucky I was and how much trouble I’d be in. When my parents got back that next night, I told them some far fetched story about being run off the road. They were mostly doubtful because they couldn’t understand how someone fixed both tires. I couldn’t either.
Some 16 years later, I told my folks what really happened. It was after I watched City of Angels, with Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage that it hit me. This guy looked like those Angels. And then I didn’t think about it much more again.
Until five years ago. Another reminder came to me. One that I won’t talk about here.
Maybe there are reasons that can explain this whole thing away, but in my heart, I know differently.
I am a believer in science. I like to be shown facts and proof on the path to validation. I want to know how things work and see the substantiation behind the process. And because of this — and we’ve seen it so many times in scientific history — certain things cannot be explained. When that happens, scientists form “theories” and continue to study.
I believe we humans can be incredibly smart, but we are also remarkably small-brained when it comes to the expanse of the universe. We are but specks in the entire continuum of time and space. There are things we cannot see, hear, touch, or understand. They swirl around us every day.
I believe in the unknown because, scientifically, we have proven the unknown exists.
I believe in the unknown, mostly because it has come to me many times over. And I am thankful for this.
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“In a world of diminishing mystery, the unknown persists.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
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“Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but we may have to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word’ understanding.”
― Werner Karl Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science
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“It is the unknown that excites the ardor of scholars, who, in the known alone, would shrivel up with boredom.”
― Wallace Stevens
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The flatter the tire, the more air you need.
